


present and future tense

by allthewaydown



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Alternate Canon, F/M, Light Angst, Mild Smut, Older Woman/Younger Man, older!katara, younger!zuko
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-20
Updated: 2020-12-20
Packaged: 2021-03-10 22:41:10
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 883
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28184814
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/allthewaydown/pseuds/allthewaydown
Summary: — maybe it’s the woman in you, that brings out the man in me.older!katara and younger!zuko au.
Relationships: Katara/Zuko (Avatar)
Comments: 1
Kudos: 33





	present and future tense

**Author's Note:**

> thank u @goldilocks23 for your help and friendship ilysm
> 
> and thank u @lesbruin for letting me cry in our server to u hehehe
> 
> this idea has been sitting rent free in my mind and will be a quick detour from our original broadcast. hope y’all like it!

They sit in the war room while the suffocating heat of the Fire Nation summer seeps through the cracks of the palace walls. The commanders and the chiefs are all wriggling uncomfortably in their seats and the bending masters try their best to mask their discomfort. 

Zuko yawns as he tries to focus on his Uncle’s monotonous explanation of the current state of the nation. He drones on and on about the fragility of the relationship between the Fire Nation and the Southern Water Tribe and the importance of Master Katara’s presence so far away from the cold. 

He’s insatiable, his eyes trailing up and down the waterbender master’s sitting body and it leaves a path of white heat inside of him.

It’s dishonorable how he pines after a woman nine years his senior, but Zuko is twenty one and Master Katara is on the brink of thirty and he cannot help himself from imagining her underneath him and panting his name. 

He catches her blue eyes watching him every once in a while. 

As the Crown Prince of the Fire Nation, it is expected of him to be proper and reserved, but the moment he lays eyes on Master Katara of the Southern Water Tribe, every sense of propriety is removed from his body and is replaced by insurmountable lust and desire. 

“And we have Master Katara here to acknowledge for bringing the beginnings of the trade agreement between our nation and the Southern Water Tribe to fruition.” His Uncle says and Master Katara is too smart to show arrogance. But Zuko knows that it fuels the inner flame that they share. 

He knows that it empowers the strong woman that lives behind the humble exterior. That it makes her feel important and needed and most importantly, seen. 

He wants her to feel like he sees her. 

So every time a meeting ends and the sun sets on the horizon, Zuko follows behind her trail as she leads him to her quarters. Each night, the blue silk robe that adorns her shoulders flows with the wind of her step and it makes her look angelic beneath the glow of the moon.

Her scent of oceanside and seasalt overwhelms his senses and she lures him to her, drawing him to her side like a moth to a flame. 

So, every night Prince Zuko kisses Master Katara with every ounce of passion he can muster, trailing his hands down her sides, hooking her leg around his waist, tugging on her braid when she lets out quiet mewls of pleasure. 

Like routine, Master Katara pulls off his tunic and sheds her robe while her tongue probes open Zuko’s lips, their mouths colliding in mutual understanding of desperate need. 

There is also a mutual understanding of the imperative end of their midnight rendezvous’. It is known that this cannot last for very long so they savor each moment like it is the last. The future for Prince Zuko is decided and planned. The future for Master Katara is contingent on the relationship her Tribe builds with the Fire Nation.

Their futures are decidedly not intended to cross. 

But their present involves each other and that is what they will continue to indulge themselves in.

Every kiss starts off hesitant and shy but turns sloppy and hasty as they begin to undress each other, tugging on fabric that sticks to their skin and throwing it haphazardly across the room. The floor creaks with each step, but Katara’s quarters are far enough away from traffic to attract.

They always fall onto the bed and they always move against each other, squeezing and kissing and touching as much skin as they can reach. Sweat and saliva intermingle in a mess of limbs and the heat of the night intensifies their heightened pleasure.

And when Katara feels Zuko move inside her she begins to understand why one would risk their life for those they care for. She drags her nails down his back and moans loudly as he fills her with a pleasure she’s felt with none other.

Consistently, his name leaves her lips in a soft whisper that tickles Zuko’s ears like fairy dust. It leaves goosebumps on his skin and her voice lingers in his ear and makes itself permanent in his mind. 

And when Zuko feels Katara tighten around him with every thrust and he realizes what it means to give up one’s life for someone. 

Consistently, her name leaves his lips in a quiet plea, a promise that they wish they can keep. It lingers in her ears and stamps itself in her mind forever more. 

Reaching their peak is that of a pattern, always as the stars twinkle in the sky and afterwards, they lay together protected by the darkness. It is a secret the night keeps that is an agreement between the three souls that linger. 

They sleep until the orange horizon meets blue skies and they part with each other to resume the life they were known to live. 

Zuko is Crown Prince of the Fire Nation and Katara is the Master Waterbender and Ambassador of the Southern Water Tribe. Their futures are not to cross, but in the present, they decide that they will savor each moment they have with each other.


End file.
